The first thing you gotta worry about when you listen to Portland Vows’
new tape Living Posthumously is right
there in the title – what does that mean?! Bob Plant, philosopher, thinker, all
around smarter person than me, either doesn’t get that the present-tense “living”
really can’t be modified by the adverb “posthumously,” because that would be
the type of paradox that could knock the entire space-time continuum off its
axis (if indeed it’s on an axis). Did I say paradox? I meant oxymoron. You can’t
live after you’re dead, which is what “posthumously” means: post-living.
So maybe I am as smart as Bob
Plant, but get this: I’m smarter, and here’s why. I was able to make it all the
way through the Portland Vows mind puzzle and come out the other side,
completely unscathed, not knocked around or plowed over by his mental
gymnastics. Well, I was at least a little scathed as I made it through Living Posthumously – but in a good way!
In fact, I actually sort of started to feel like Living Posthumously was coating my brain in some narcotic yet
restorative way, filling in all the emotional cracks that I wasn’t even aware
of with its delicate and insightful drone smears and guitar twinkles. Perhaps
it’s the art that put these ideas in my head (and kudos to Tiny Little Hammers
for another superb design!).
So maybe Living Posthumously is
a statement of stasis, a balancing act, a dissertation on a modern problem of feeling
stuck in life in such a way that experiencing it is like looking back from
beyond the point of expiration and viewing the sleepwalking self. It’s both a
condemnation of inaction and the revelation and acceptance that inaction is all
there’s ever going to be. But that doesn’t mean those complex feelings can’t
coexist within your mind sans a soundtrack. And Living Posthumously is a great one, filled with gorgeous miniature
lullabies, star shimmers, and Nyquil-coated safe spaces. You’ll need those safe
spaces to recharge at least some energy
spent on those thousand-yard stares.
https://portlandvows.bandcamp.com/
https://thirdkindrecords.bandcamp.com/
--Ryan
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